February Blahs

 

I have never been a 'fan' of February.  If we are going to have grey dreary cold days, they generally come during the shortest month of the year.  

This year we have had an atypical year.  Too warm.  Too little snow on the ground.  Grey dreary days.

As I get older, the weather seems to affect me more.  I'm told the body reacts poorly to cold, damp, dreary, more.  Turning into a weather barometer was not my goal in life.

Yesterday we had sun, and it was lovely to see it.  Today we have snow.  I am relieved to see it, even if it is another grey dreary day.  We rather desperately need more precipitation, and after years of drought conditions, we are poised to have another record breaking wildfire season.

Rivers up and down the province are at record lows.  Lakes are showing the lack of rain/snow and ground aquifers are drying out.  

Yesterday we were told that the fires that never got put out last year are now springing (heh) back into life and smoke warnings are already being sounded.

I pull the edges of my life closer, make my goals smaller, my aspirations more...modest.  

That doesn't mean I am withdrawing from all social interaction.  Of course not.  The internet does do one thing and that is to allow people at distance to stay in contact.

So I have zoom presentations booked for later this month and next.  I can do these from the comfort of my studio.  I have 11 topics (I think) and have been known to develop a topic on request.  My fees are 'low' and I  may raise them later this year.  Still mulling that over.

The manuscript for my next (last????) book is going through final formatting and we are on schedule to launch on the 14th.  A modest effort - pdf only, available on ko-fi, when it is ready.

In the meantime, I continue making tea towels.  Someone has sent me a gift - a kilo of fine linen yarn, from  Lithuania.  I am gobsmacked, but looking forward to getting it.  More tea towels will be coming.  The tracking info says it was in France yesterday, coming via FedEx.  Which means it might be here by the time I'm finished the warp currently being threaded.  

I feel ready to do something else for a while.  It's been great working my way through the whatever this weave structure might be called.  Time to work on something else for a while.

My other textile focus is the bobbin lace.  After a week or so of messing around, re-learning how to do Torchon, I finally feel like I can guide someone else through the basics.  I'm going to do one more practice bookmark, then see if I can start making 'ornaments' for the guild to sell as a fund raiser.  In my deep dive into the dark recesses of my studio, I 'found' a bunch of die cut triple fold card blanks.  I figure I can make small ornaments and mount them in the cards.  The guild can sell them in the guild booth at the craft fair.  We are always looking for ways to pay the guild room rent.  

For today, I will finish threading the 'last' warp, then sley and tie on.  Weaving should begin tomorrow.  Fingers crossed it turns out the way I want...

showing the hem area and the beginning of the design